Thipaw - Shan State

Thipaw also known as Hsipaw, is a town in Shan State, Myanmar. It is 200 km or about 124 miles northeast of Mandalay. Hsipaw in the North of Shan State, at an elevation of 1370'feet, is cool in the evenings. The city has occupied several sites around the Dokhtawaddi River. It's fertile valley an ideal place to grow fruit and vegetables. The present town is almost 400 years old. It's position on the infamous WW II 'Burma Road' makes it a favourite place for truck drivers plying between Burma and Yunnan to stop, rest and eat. On the strength of the trade between the two countries Hsipaw has become relatively prosperous.

Thipaw is a lively and friendly town with minority villages accessible in a day's hike. Thipaw is accessible by train, bus, or car. Leaving Mandalay in the pre-dawn hours it is supposed to reach Thipaw sometime in the afternoon, but when it does arrive the locals all place bets as to what day's train it really is. Bus is cheap. Car is convenient. Thipaw is a compact, picturesque town, the center of which hosts a lively morning market, while in the evenings the downtown movie theatre packs out with locals taking in the latest production from Yangon. Scattered around are restaurants serving up local Shan dishes, Chinese dishes, and more recently a number of teahouses have added banana pancakes to their list of offerings - as popular with the locals as with the foreign travellers.